It has long been known that germs are spread by, among other things, hand to hand contact. Hence there's been much in the literature recently concerning the washing of hands in order to prevent the spreading of the common cold as well as other microbes. Further, it has long been known that toothbrushes can be a source of the spreading of germs as well. Recently, it has been discovered that bacteria continue to live on writing implements there used by individuals. As such, writing implements can also carry microbes and therefore can be a vector for the spread of disease.
There is much prior art for the sterilization of various objects. For example, hospitals use sterilization routinely for surgical instruments. Typically such sterilization occurs both chemically as well as through high-pressure high temperature steam sterilization. This results in generally sterile instruments for use in surgery. The difficulty, of course, is that such devices are expensive, cumbersome, and are therefore not practical for the widespread sterilization of more common devices.
The spread of germs via bathroom articles has been the subject of invention. Many inventors have dealt with the issues associated with toothbrush sterilization. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,407 to Andary et al. discloses an automatic toothbrush sterilization comprising ultraviolet lamps. Similarly U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,445 to Ellis discloses a sterilization holder and night light for toothbrushes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,072 Ritter discloses a toothbrush sterilizer with automatic control. U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,795 to Sakurai et al. discloses an ultraviolet sterilizer for dental implements. U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,364 to Ritter discloses a toothbrush conditioner comprising an ultraviolet radiation source. U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,770 to Hylton et al. discloses another form of toothbrush holder having an ultraviolet lamp mounted within the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,851 to Beasley et al. discloses yet another form of ultraviolet toothbrush sterilizer and holder. U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,847 to Lackey et al. discloses a toothbrush sanitation device having ultraviolet light source and a removable lid. U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,460 to Foster, Jr. et al. discloses a toothbrush sanitizer having a centrally mounted ultraviolet bulb with cavities for receiving toothbrushes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,572 to Chu discloses a toothbrush holder also having an ultraviolet source. U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,521 to Bourgue discloses a toothbrush holder also having an ultraviolet light source. U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,877 to Choi discloses a rest room organizer having a sterilization apparatus using ultraviolet light for sterilizing bathroom articles. U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,635 to Duthei, Jr. discloses a general sterilization method and apparatus wherein microorganisms are exposed to ultraviolet light. Thus it can be seen that much work has been done with respect to the sterilization of bathroom articles. However no attention has been paid to the sterilization of more common implements, specifically writing implements which have also been shown to carry disease producing microbes.
It would therefore be desirable to have a convenient, commonly available, inexpensive, and easy to use sterilization method and apparatus for sterilizing writing implements thereby preventing the transmission of object-borne disease spreading microorganisms.